All weather turnout

[Helly101]

Hi,
I need to get something sorted for next winter. We have recently moved house and our new land has turned out to be very wet clay. The horses were trudging thought about 8 inches of clay towards the end of winter. I'm thinking of a turnout area. Approx 24 mts x 20mtrs. Does anyone have any advice about planning or what surface to choose ? Budget is important but I need to do it right or I'll be doing it again! Alternative is to purchase some more land if at all possible but it will probably be very similar when wet. Horses totally ruined one of our two fields which means grazing is limited now. The horses are stabled over night,take turns to go on a small concrete yard in front of the stables and are grazing our other field for several hours a day.

 

[Honey08]

We did one a few years ago, our land sounds very like yours! We didn't get planning, although technically you should. We put down a couple of feet of hardcore (rough stuff that was free), a local farmer flattened it with the bucket of his tractor, then we bought a few loads of road planing a from local contractors and spread that on top until it was level and well covered.

Ours is about 10mx40m and joins onto the yard, so my two horses go out on that all day with haynets in winter. We probably spent about £500 max, and it has done three winters now. I love it!

If you trawl back through my previous post (sorry there are loads) you will find other threads on this subject where I have put photos - can't on this thread today..

 

[Red-1]

Mine is turned out on my arena, it is sand with some rubber on. The size you say would be great for lungeing and even a bit of schooling. An arena would need permission, but so would most changes of surface I think.

If I were doing an all weather, I would spend the extra and get the bonus of being able to work my horse too.

BTW, our land is so bad he is still on the all weather now!